Monday Outdoor Rink Reports

(01) November 23 2009 (02) November 30, 2009 (03) December 7, 2009 (04) December 14, 2009 (05) December 21, 2009 (06) December 28, 2009

(07) January 4, 2010 (08) January 11, 2010 (09) January 18, 2010 (10) January 25, 2010 (11) February 1, 2010 (12) February 8, 2010

(13) February 15, 2010 (14) February 22, 2010 (15) March 1, 2010 (16) March 8, 2010

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Season-end meeting notes for City compressor-cooled outdoor rinks, Wednesday May 19 2010 3.10 - 4.15 pm, Metro Hall.

Present: Andy Korospeki (acting Parks director), Malcolm Bromley (Recreation director), Kevin Bowser (Etobicoke Parks manager, citywide Rinks lead), Kelvin Seow (Toronto/East York Recreation manager), Mayssan Shuja Uddin, Sarah Cormier, Jutta Mason (CELOS)

1. opening and closing dates for 2010/2011: Andy Koropeski: same as last year -- 14 rinks will open on November 19, the rest on Dec.3. Same as last year for closing dates -- some are supposed to stay open two weeks into March. From Andy: This is the decision of Council and can only be changed by Council.
There is no plan for a staff report to the Parks Committee, on the advisability of closing rinks earlier.

2. advertising/publicity re A.I.R.s citywide: There is no plan for any bus shelter advertising but maybe Recreation will do a kick-off event, e.g. Paula Fletcher skating at City Hall. From Kelvin Seow: The decision to advertise does not depend on the outdoor rink budget but on the outdoor rink revenue -- i.e. low revenue possibilities means low (or no) ad budget.

Clarification from Kelvin Seow: Promotion of AIRs have traditionally been done through local flyers and the Brochure. It doesn't mean we cannot do advertising. (The cost for Advertising is not in the AIR budgets. But it is not tied to Revenue in AIRs)

3. night-time ice-making at the beginning of the rinks: There is no plan about late-night ice-making yet. From Kevin Bowser: it might be too expensive in overtime costs.From Kelvin: But it's possible to get people to work overnight. Night work costs no more than evening work.

Clarification from Kelvin Seow: Staff are paid the same hourly wage on an evening shift as an midnight shift.

4. snow removal equipment and practices: There is no plan to increase snow-clearing capacity by attaching more ploughs to the fronts of trucks used by zamboni drivers.

5. ice-maintenance training of resurfacer-drivers: The booklet is being rewritten. No details about who is writing the new version, the content, or the release date.

6. zamboni allocation for Wallace Rink: A garage will be built there this summer, at the SW corner of pleasure-skating rink. They'll run gas and water lines, and there will be a zamboni on site. The driver will be a Local 416 caretaker at Wallace CRC. General aim re zambonis: to reduce the number of "moving parts." Next season that means one zamboni located at Jimmie Simpson Rink (to begin). Jimmie Simpson, Wallace, and Giovanni Caboto rinks will all have building-caretakers as zamboni drivers, harmonizing with North York practice.

7. communication between Parks rink staff and Rec rink staff: the plan is to have the same protocol in place next season as was announced at the very end of last rink season, promoting direct communication.

8. duties of Toronto/EY rink staff: management seemed surprised to hear that Dufferin Rink zamboni staff don't stay on site. No specific plan to change this. General plan to move more rink housekeeping duties back to Local 416 drivers (from Local 79 B.A.'s?). No more details about this.

9. helmet policy: Malcolm Bromley: The mandate of the skating committee was to find ways to enforce it. He will direct his staff to send their draft report to Jutta Mason and then there will be a meeting, which Malcolm wants to attend. Malcolm has put in a mandatory helmet policy at the ski hills and there was "not one complaint." He joked that there may be complaints if Jutta gets involved. Is this joke meant to convey the idea that public dissatisfaction with city policies may be generated artificially?

10. photography policy: CELOS was requested to propose a better policy or procedure.

11. Family Day/holiday hours: CELOS was requested to send in a proposal about which rinks should stay open regular hours on holidays, dependent on staff discretion re weather.

12. building design and use -- drift toward locker rooms, advertising with MLSE. Malcolm: "If MLSE wants to donate, they can do that but there should be consultation. If CELOS wants rinks to be social spaces, they should make proposals (e.g. like what Catherine Porter wrote about)." CELOS already did this, presenting the rink booklet http://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CELOS/rinkbooklete-book.pdf to the Parks Committee on April 10 2007. The proposals in the booklet were to be addressed in a staff report, to be returned to the Parks Committee. Was this report ever written, or presented?

13. locker repairs/locked front doors/hidden staff/locked rinks/locked washrooms in Etobicoke rink houses: Lockers: Kelvin Seow may have found a way to get them repaired. Front doors of West Mall and Giovanni Caboto will be unlocked again during rink hours next season -- no problem with the unlocked-door trial this past season. No plan to unlock washrooms at Etobicoke's "minor rinks."

14. JJP proposal/Greenwood Rink campfire: Question from Malcolm Bromley: "what did the JJP advisory council say?"
>From Jutta: "most of the members seemed not to use the rink or know much about it. Are program suggestions for rinks dependent on advisory council approval?"
Response from Malcolm Bromley: "No."
Kelvin Seow will set up another meeting to discuss last season's proposal for doing more with rec rink staff at Giovanni Caboto, no proposed date or format. No one at the meeting was aware that the zamboni driver there had tried to set up skate-lending.

Greenwood rink campfire: from Malcolm Bromley: there's no more problem with such an event (collaboration between Parks and Rec).

15. per person cost of low-usage rinks e.g. Glen Long, Jimmie Simpson: No plan to increase usage but CELOS is invited to share our vision with Costanza Allevato, re Glen Long Rink, since she is the recreation manager for that district. No proposal for a date to do this.

16. information for the public, e.g. though 311/Rink hotline signs: standard is the PFR point person giving new information to 311 twice a day, hot-line signs will stay up and just refer people to 311. No commitment to giving out the rink phone numbers. No plan to take down the hotline signs, since they recommend going to 311. No commitment, or even interest, in publishing rink phone numbers again, so people could call directly.

Monday Rink Report Correspondence

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